Photoluminescence study of Si doped and undoped Chalcopyrite CuGaSe2 thin films

Photoluminescence (PL) characteristics have been studied on undoped and Si-doped CuGaSe₂ single crystal thin films grown on GaAs (001) substrate by migration-enhanced epitaxy. Room temperature PL spectrum of an undoped layer clearly shows free excitonic emission bands related to the minimum band-edge and to the split-off valence band, but no discernible emission has been observed in the low energy area. At 4.2 K, the excitonic emission due to the split-off valence band disappears. Instead, two additional emissions appear at 1.68 and 1.715 eV which are attributed to the bound exciton and band-to-acceptor transition. The Si doping to CuGaSe₂ produces two additional PL bands around 1.61 and 1.64 eV. These PL bands are attributed to the donor acceptor pair emissions due to the doped Si impurity which probably occupies Cu or Ga sites and intrinsic Cu vacancy.     

Pressure dependence of the near-band-edge photoluminescence from ZnO microrods at low temperature

The temperature and pressure dependences of band-edge photoluminescence from ZnO microrods have been investigated. The energy separation between the free exciton (FX) and its first order phonon replica (FX-1LO) decreases at a rate of k_BT with increasing temperature. The intensity ratio of the FX-1LO to the bound exciton (BX) emission is found to decrease slightly with increasing pressure. All of the exciton emission peaks show a blue shift with increasing pressure. The pressure coefficient of the FX transition, longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy, and binding energy of BX are estimated to be 21.4, 0.5, and 0.9 meV/GPa, respectively.     

Luminescence of CsPbBr3-like quantum dots in CsBr single crystals

Luminescence and decay kinetics of the Pb²⁺ aggregates in CsBr host crystals were measured in the 4–300 K temperature interval and in 10⁻¹⁰–10⁻³ time scale. Their emission properties are similar to those of CsPbBr₃ bulk crystal showing a subnanosecond free exciton emission in the 520–540 nm spectral region and slower trapped exciton emission in the 530–580 nm spectral region. An efficient energy exchange between the free and trapped exciton states is shown by the temperature dependencies of emission spectra. The quantum size effect is demonstrated in the high energy shift and broadening of the absorption and emission spectra and an estimate of the size of the CsPbBr₃-like aggregates is provided. Independent evidence of the presence of the CsPbBr₃ and Cs₄PbBr₆ aggregated phases in the CsBr host was obtained by X-ray structural studies.     

Optical properties of Zn0.5Cd0.5Se thin films grown on InP by molecular beam epitaxy

We report photoluminescence (PL) and reflectivity measurements of Zn_0.5Cd_0.5Se epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InP substrates. The low-temperature PL spectra are dominated by asymmetric lines, which can be deconvoluted into two Gaussian peaks with a separation of ∼8 meV. The behavior of these peaks is studied as a function of excitation intensity and temperature, revealing that these are free exciton (FE) and bound exciton emission lines. Two lower energy emission lines are also observed and assigned to the first and second longitudinal optical phonon replicas of the FE emission. The temperature dependence of the intensity, line width, and energy of the dominant emission lines are described by an Arrhenius plot, a Bose-Einstein type relationship, Varshni's and Bose-Einstein equations, respectively.     

Photoluminescence of PbBr2, PbCl2 and β-PbF2 single crystals

Photoluminescence measurements on a PbBr₂ single crystal at 4.2 K revealed a violet and a yellow emission band, in addition to the UV, blue and red band which were already known. The violet and blue luminescence are ascribed to emission of an exciton bound by a defect. The UV emission is quenched at much lower temperature than reported previously, because of a more effective energy transfer from the exciton to defect centres. Luminescence results on PbCl₂ and β-PbF₂ are in fair agreement with those of other authors.     

Optical properties of Tm-doped GaSe single crystals

Optical properties of Tm-doped GaSe single crystals were investigated by measurements of optical absorption and photoluminescence. The single crystals were grown by the Bridgman technique. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the single crystals were in the ε-type GaSe phase. The optical absorption spectra showed a sharp absorption peak at 582 nm near the band edge, which is due to direct free exciton. The temperature dependence of the energy of the exciton absorption peak was well fitted by the Varshni relation. In the photoluminescence spectrum at 10 K, we observed a very weak emission peak at 586 nm, a relatively strong emission peak centered at 613 nm, and several sharp and narrow emission peaks in the 790-840 nm region. The two emission peaks at 586 and 613 nm were associated with intrinsic emission lines due to direct free exciton and indirect bound exciton. The emission peaks in the 790-840 nm region, which were related to extrinsic emission, were assigned as due to the ³F₄→³H₆ transition of Tm³⁺ ions with a low symmetry of D₃ in the host lattice.     

Photoluminescence study of aligned ZnO nanorods grown using chemical bath deposition

The photoluminescence study of self-assembled ZnO nanorods grown on a pre-treated Si substrate by a simple chemical bath deposition method at a temperature of 80 °C is hereby reported. By annealing in O₂ environment the UV emission is enhanced with diminishing deep level emission suggesting that most of the deep level emission is due to oxygen vacancies. The photoluminescence was investigated from 10 K to room temperature. The low temperature photoluminescence spectrum is dominated by donor-bound exciton. The activation energy and binding energy of shallow donors giving rise to bound exciton emission were calculated to be around 13.2 meV, 46 meV, respectively. Depending on these energy values and nature of growth environment, hydrogen is suggested to be the possible contaminating element acting as a donor.     

Luminescence properties of SrSi2O2N2 doped with divalent rare earth ions

The optical properties of SrSi₂O₂N₂ doped with divalent Eu²⁺ and Yb²⁺ are investigated. The Eu²⁺ doped material shows efficient green emission peaking at around 540 nm that is consistent with 4f⁷→4f⁶5d transitions of Eu²⁺. Due to the high quantum yield (90%) and high quenching temperature (>500 K) of luminescence, SrSi₂O₂N₂:Eu²⁺ is a promising material for application in phosphor conversion LEDs. The Yb²⁺ luminescence is markedly different from Eu²⁺ and is characterized by a larger Stokes shift and a lower quenching temperature. The anomalous luminescence properties are ascribed to impurity trapped exciton emission. Based on temperature and time dependent luminescence measurements, a schematic energy level diagram is derived for both Eu²⁺ and Yb²⁺ relative to the valence and conduction bands of the oxonitridosilicate host material.     

m面蓝宝石上ZnO/ZnMgO多量子阱的制备及发光特性研究

利用等离子体辅助分子束外延设备(P-MBE)在m面的蓝宝石(m-Al₂O₃)衬底上制备了ZnO/Zn_0.85Mg_0.15O多量子阱.反射式高能电子衍射谱(RHEED)图样的原位观察表明,多量子阱结构是以二维模式生长的.从光致发光谱中可以看到ZnO/Zn_0.85Mg_0.15O多量子阱在室温仍具有明显的量子限域效应.在290 K时阱宽为3 nm的ZnO/Zn_{0.85关键词： 等离子体辅助分子束外延 ZnO多量子阱 光致发光}     

Thermal quenching behavior of emission bands in Eu-doped ZnS nanowires

Optical properties and temperature-dependent quenching behaviors of emission from undoped and Eu-doped ZnS nanowires (NWs) were characterized. Electron paramagnetic resonance measurements confirmed the presence of the dopant in valence state Eu²⁺. The 368 nm (3.37 eV) near-band-edge emission band associated with dissociation of a bound exciton was found to have an activation energy of 27.3 meV. A dopant-related transition was observed from both samples due to the incorporation of unintentional Au catalyst in the undoped NWs and of intentional Eu-dopant. These dopant-related transitions show large activation energy and appreciable amount of emission intensities above the room temperature. Both samples also exhibit surface-state-related transitions around 400 nm (3.046 eV) which have relatively smaller activation energies than the dopant-related transitions.     

Temperature properties of exciton luminescence from CdTe quantum wells with different thicknesses in the CdTe/CdMnTe structure

The optical spectra of the CdTe/Cd_0.7Mn_0.3Te structure containing three CdTe quantum wells with nominal thicknesses of 16, 8, and 4 monolayers have been investigated. The temperature dependences of parameters of the exciton luminescence spectra (integrated intensity, full-width at half-maximum, position of the maximum, Stokes shift) for quantum wells with different thicknesses differ substantially. These differences are explained by a strong thickness dependence of the energy of Coulomb coupling in the exciton, the energy of localization of the exciton on bulges of the quantum well, and the degree of penetration of the exciton wave function into the barrier. At high excitation power densities, the emission contours of the quantum wells with thicknesses of 8 and 16 monolayers contain short-wavelength tails that correspond to optical transitions between excited quantum-well levels.     

Observation of a donor-acceptor pair recombination in the edge emission of ZnSe crystal by electro-luminescence

An injection type electro-luminescence in ZnSe crystal has been studied by using ZnSe-SnO₂ hetero-junction at 20°K. In the emission peak observed around 2·70 eV, a clear energy shift toward the higher energy side with increasing injection current density has been found at low temperatures, which could be associated with the D-A pair (donor-acceptor pair) recombination process. The energy sum of the donor and acceptor activation is estimated to be larger than 137 meV. In the higher temperature region, this emission line turns out due to the ‘free-to-bound’ recombination, and the related acceptor ionization energy is considered to be ～120 meV. By taking into consideration the energies of bound exciton emission, the exciton localization energies and the related donor and acceptor ionization energies are evaluated.     

Two-dimensional heterostructures based on ZnO

The multiple quantum wells (MQW) Mg_0.27Zn_0.73O/ZnO have been grown by the pulsed laser deposition method with different well widths L _w . The interface roughness of quantum wells was inherited from the bottom one and did not exceed 1 nm. We observed the quantum confinement effect showing up in the blue shift of the exciton peak in the low temperature (8 K) photoluminescence and absorption spectra at well width reduction. The exciton binding energy of the two-dimensional structures Mg_0.27Zn_0.73O/ZnO was two times higher in comparison with the bulk ZnO. It has been established that Einstein’s characteristic temperature Θ _E sharp increase with reduction of well width L _w up to L _w =2.6 nm. It has been revealed that the discontinuity ratio of conduction and valence bands in the heterostructure Mg_0.27Zn_0.73O/ZnO is 0.65/0.35. We demonstrated the abrupt increase in quantum efficiency at a reduction of the well width that allowed us to observe the optically excited stimulated emission in ZnO quantum wells with the excitation threshold of ∼210 kW/cm².     

Optical absorption due to paraexciton of Cu2O

In Cu₂O a new absorption line is observed at 97 cm^?1 below the n =1 of the yellow exciton (triply degenerate orthoexciton) under a strong magnetic field at 4.2 K. The line is assigned as a transition to a nondegenerate spin triplet state Γ⁺₂ (paraexciton). An analysis including the effects due to the n =1 of the green exciton yields 364 cm^?1 as the exchange energy, and 2.68 and ?1.02, or 1.02 and ?2.68 as the g-factors of the conduction and valence bands forming the yellow exciton.     

Origins of green band emission in high-temperature annealed N-doped ZnO

Nitrogen-doped ZnO sample has been annealed in O₂ ambient at high temperature (1000 °C) to improve its photoluminescence property. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra of the sample are dominated by three near-band-edge emissions at 3.377, 3.362, and 3.332 eV, which are ascribed to free exciton emission (FX_A), and neutral donor-bound exciton (D⁰X), and its two-electron satellite (TES), respectively. With increasing temperature in low temperature region, the intensity of FX_A increases and the green band (GB) shows a negative thermal quenching effect resulting from thermal dissociation of D⁰X with more free excitons and neutral donors formed. The doublet structure with energy space ∼30 meV and repeated separation of longitudinal-optical phonon energy of 72 meV are observed in GB at low temperatures. The temperature independent energy position of GB indicates a typical recombination characteristic within strongly localized complexes. The doublet structures are considered to originate from the ground and exited states of shallow donors recombining with deep acceptors such as zinc vacancies.     

Formation of excitons from free electron–hole pairs due to acoustic phonon interactions in quantum wells

A study of the process of exciton formation due to acoustic phonon interaction in quantum wells (QWs) is presented. Considering that excitons are formed from photoexcited free electron–hole pairs, we have derived the rate of such formation as a function of density and temperature of charge carriers and wavevectorK_|| of the center-of-mass motion of exciton, and finally applied our theory to GaAs/AlGaAs QWs. We have found that the formation of an exciton due to acoustic phonon emission is more efficient at relatively large values ofK_|| (hot excitons) whereas that due to longitudinal optical (LO) phonon emission is more efficient at relatively small values of K_||.     

Low-temperature X-ray and photoluminescence of lead halide crystals

The emission spectra of PbF₂, PbCl₂ and PbBr₂ monocrystals are measured under optical and X-ray excitation at liquid helium temperature. Certain emission bands are attributed to the radiative transitions in the self-trapped cation exciton (excited Pb²⁺ion). The increase of trapped exciton via electron-hole recombination is discussed.     

Theoretical investigations on the high light yield of the LuI3:Ce scintillator

The extremely high scintillation efficiency of lutetium iodide doped by cerium is explained as a result of at least three factors controlling the energy transfer from the host matrix to activator. We propose and theoretically validate the possibility of a new channel of energy transfer to excitons and directly to cerium, namely the Auger process when Lu 4f hole relaxes to the valence band hole with simultaneous creation of additional exciton or excitation of cerium. This process should be efficient in LuI₃, and inefficient in LuCl₃. To justify this channel, we perform calculations of density of states using a periodic plane-wave density functional approach. The second factor is the increase of the efficiency of valence hole capture by cerium in the row LuCl₃-LuBr₃-LuI₃. The third one is the increase of the efficiency of energy transfer from self-trapped excitons to cerium ions in the same row. The latter two factors are verified by cluster ab initio calculations. We estimate either the relaxation of these excitations and barriers for the diffusion of self-trapped holes (STH) and self-trapped exciton (STE). The performed estimations theoretically justify the high LuI₃:Ce³⁺ scintillator yield.     

Low-temperature photoluminescence in AgGaSe<Subscript>2</Subscript> single crystals

Photoluminescence spectra from a single-crystalline AgGaSe₂ ternary compound grown by the Bridgman-Stockbarger method from a nonstoichiometric melt are studied in the temperature interval 8–300 K under various excitation levels. The spectra contain emission bands associated with donor-acceptor recombination, as well as with bound and free excitons. The exciton binding energy and the energy gap of the AgGaSe₂ crystals are evaluated. The temperature dependence of the energies of bound and free excitons, as well as of the energy gap of the crystals, is constructed.     

Characterization of host-lattice emission and energy transfer in BaMgAl10O17:Eu

Host-lattice emission, energy transfer and degradation processes are characterized in undoped and Eu-doped BaMgAl₁₀O₁₇. Undoped BaMgAl₁₀O₁₇ exhibits a broad emission centered at 265 nm when excited at wavelengths shorter than 190 nm. This emission is assigned to exciton recombination at Ba-O groups in the cation layer of the lattice. The emission exhibits excellent overlap with the excitation band of Eu²⁺ in this host, providing a means of host-to-activator energy transfer in the doped phosphor. The exciton emission is relatively stable to thermal damage, but undergoes a peak shift and significant decrease in intensity after exposure to VUV radiation. Heating of VUV-damaged materials in air leads to some repair of the spectral properties.